Friday evening, Avery played flag football at Jesuit:

After the game, Avery (7th grade) got ready to go to his first school dance.

Saturday morning, Carson had a soccer game at St Ignatius.

Sunday afternoon, Carson played flag football at Christian Brothers.

To celebrate two September birthdays (Justin and me), Thais and Lenin arranged for a new experience – Rail Explorers in Amador County, near Ione.

Cars hold four people or two. Everyone pedals, the right rear person pedals the electric assist and controls the brake.

There was a short break after 4 miles while all the cars were turned around.

What a great experience to do together as a family.

Christian Brothers v St Francis at Cosumnes River College: girls’ volleyball. Crowd support and enthusiasm is about 1000% improved from when I was in high school. There were no girls’ sports in 1966. This is St Francis’ student cheering section, about 1/4 of the seating on their side, always standing, loud in-unison chants, funny exchanges with CB’s student cheering section at the other end.

The moment the CB varsity team won their third game:

I went over to stay with the boys a couple of days this week. Sophia started school on Tuesday, Carson and Avery start on Thursday.

Go Carson!

This week when I helped out, Carson shared that he is the most-hydrated person in the family followed by a demonstration ..

until full capacity was reached.

I took Avery to his weekly piano lesson and got to watch. Such a different technique from when I took piano lessons 66 years ago. At the end of the lesson, I took a video of Avery playing as the teacher narrated – essentially a video summary of what Avery should practice next week. Later in the car, I air-dropped the video to Avery’s phone. Yup, many changes from the 1950s.

More entertainment:

On Monday it was Carson’s 8 1/2 birthday. He asked for a game called Hydro Strike. Shoot a small yellow ball at your opponent, defend and shoot with paddles. If the ball strikes the center position just right, a little squirt of water is received in the face.

Good idea to keep a towel nearby.

I spent a few hours with Sophia, Avery and Carson on Thursday. No sports camps this week. We went out to pick up lunch. While inching forward in the drive-through fast food line, I checked my phone and got quite the surprise. “Well, you guys are going to be the first ones to hear some pretty amazing news. I’m going to be a great-grandma.” You could see the wheels turning in their heads – who? They decided it had to be their cousin Kellen. After we finished our various lunches we played a couple of rounds of Cover Your Assets. Carson won first, then Avery.

Sophia said she had a picture on her phone of her, Kellen and Odin and sent it to me:

Avery is quite self-motivated to sit down every so often and practice the latest song he’s learning.

Lenin was out of town and Thais had a full day at work. Situations like this make me happy. I picked up Avery from sports camp at Jesuit, then Carson at zoo camp, then everyone had dentist appointments.

Several times during the afternoon, Avery sat down at the piano to practice.

I got dinner started, Thais came home, and I got to hear about Sophia’s upcoming trip to St Mary’s for a Christian Brothers student council retreat.